Ugg boots, also spelled ugh boots and ug boots, are a style of sheepskin boot, with wool as the inner lining and a tanned outer surface worn by both men and women. Ugg boots often have a synthetic sole, although this is not universal. Uggs are popular with the teenage set, worn by girls with mini skirts, leggings, and with jeans tucked into the boots. Ugg boots are also popular with boys, wearing jeans or tracksuit bottoms inside them most commonly.
Did you know that Australian Sheepskin Ug boots have always been called Ug, Ugh or Ugg boots and have been made in Australia for almost 200 years? "We always called them Uggs, Smith says, "long before it was a trademarked brand." Brian Smith, Founder UGG Holdings, Inc. Los Angeles Magazine October 1st, 2001
Growing Up in Ugs
By the 1970s, in Perth, the largest city on Australia’s West Coast, Ug boots were being manufactured by several small companies in the area. Perth has much the same climate as Southern California and is also a haven for surfers, whom Aussies call "surfies." And it was the community of surfies at the great surfing beaches at Margaret River near Perth who first adopted Ug Boots as their footwear of choice and made them a symbol of the Aussie surfing lifestyle.
Ug Fever Spreads
From the beaches of Western Australia, Ugs were soon seen on the feet of East Coast surfers from Brisbane to Sydney. And it wasn’t long before some of these surfers -- the ones who traded their surfboards for skis in the winter -- found that their Ug Boots were just as at home in the ski resort areas of the Snowy Mountains as they were on the warm sands of Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
It was Aussie surfers, traveling the world in search of the perfect wave, who first introduced their mates in Southern California to the pleasures of the Ug Boot. Ugs soon became a cult fashion among those L.A. surfers who could depend on a buddy ‘down under" to send them a pair of boots.
Ug Essentials
Today the Ug "secret" is out. You’ll find these versatile boots to be in fashion on beaches from San Diego to Santa Cruz and in ski resorts from Tahoe to Vail. And today, you don’t have to "know someone" in Australia who will send you a pair, since there are now a number of companies importing boots of this type. But, if you want the genuine article, you do have to know what you’re looking for because, no matter how they spell it -- Ug, Ugg or Ugh -- there are several importers with look-alike products that fall short of being the real thing.
If you want genuine Ug Boots -- well-made boots with all the qualities that made the original so desirable -- you’ll want to make sure that.....
The boots are made from 100% Australian Merino Sheepskin. This will ensure your purchase is made of the finest Sheepskin hide avaliable.
Trademark controversyIn 1971, Shane Stedman registered the term Ugh-boot and other terms as trademark with the Australian Trade Mark Registry. These trademarks were subsequently sold to the American company Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which also registered other trademarks, such as UGG Australia in 1999. By 2003, Deckers had begun a campaign of legal threats against Australian manufacturers and vendors using variants of "ugh boots" to describe their wares. Interestingly enough, Deckers' "Australian UGGs" are made in China as indicated on their 'made in' label.
As a result, Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall, owners of Uggs-N-Rugs, a Western Australia-based manufacturer, started legal action to have ug, ugg and ugh boots removed from the Australian Trademarks Registry. In January 2006, they succeeded in having Deckers's Australian trademark removed, and the words and the names were once again generic terms for sheepskin boots. Ian Thompson, Delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks, stated: "[t]he evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that the terms UGH BOOT(S), UG BOOT(S) and UGG BOOT(S) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods which should innocently come to the minds of people making this particular style of sheepskin boot."[1]
Deckers Outdoor Corporation decided not to challenge the decision in a higher court, but still hold the trademark in the United States and the European Union and continue to refer to their product as "UGG footwear". They have continued a campaign against other companies referring to products as "ugg", "ugly" or "ugh" boots. They claim that they continually monitor usage of the above names on the World Wide Web, using legal means to shut down any auction or website that they feel infringes their trademark.[3] Deckers have also registered the domain uggsnrugs.com,[4] an example of cybersquatting. They refer to the above-mentioned decision of the Australian Registrar of Trademarks, but incorrectly[citation needed] claim it is an opinion rather than a judicial determination, and has little-to-no value as a legal precedent in the United States - which is also incorrect.[5] The website also lists the results of Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy cases taken to an arbitration provider, which mostly relate to cybersquatting by Deckers. A search of the US trademark registry yields the following information on the very first time UGG was trademarked in the US (and note that it was abandoned in 1985):
Beware of very cheap imitations... quite a few boots on the market are made of cow suede with sawn on sheepskin inner fleece off cuts.... Don't take the chance and purchase these boots.... the external cow suede does not breath like 100% sheepskin does and will leave you with a smelly sweaty boot... But I must say these boots do look like the real thing but just don't cut the mustard when compared to authentic ugg boots.
$69 Authentic Australian Ugg Boots - http://www.topabuy.com/
